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Sinn Féin Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh is calling for further resources to be put in place to inspect private rented accommodation in Galway City and County in light of Estate Management Agencies advertising what he calls a ‘Glorified Corridor’, being dressed up as a flat, for rent at €640 per month.

Speaking today, the Galway West - South Mayo Senator says:

“It is absolutely disgraceful that Estate Management Companies are advertising properties for landlords who are in breach of standards for rented accommodation and Galway City and County Council must fulfill their duties to stop it.

“A property advertised recently by a prominent local property management company for letting in Rahylin Glebe in the east of Galway City, which is nothing more than a dressed up corridor, and is almost certainly in breach of the standards laid down in regulations by the Department of the Housing, Planning and Local Government. These outline the minimum standards that must be complied with in relation to health and safety for tenants.

“Galway City and Council has an abysmal record when it comes to inspecting private rented accommodation. According to a report published by the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) in October 2016, Galway City Council had the lowest inspection rate in the country at 1.3% and Galway County Council was third worst in the country.

“Of the 1.3% of private rented premises inspected in Galway City in 2014, 74% failed inspection. Only 1% of private rented premises in in Galway County were inspected, with a 100% failure rate. The only properties inspected in Galway City and County were ones being assessed for HAP or RAS payments. None of the others on the open market were inspected.

"Galway City Council also had the lowest staff complement in the country allocated for inspections of properties in the private rented sector.

“This all indicates to me that we need far more resources and a much more robust inspection regime in Galway City and County councils to ensure that our private rented accommodation sector reaches the minimum standards required.

“Agencies and landlords advertising and supplying substandard properties must be taken to task and the practices we are seeing, of unscrupulous people taking advantage of those desperate to find accommodation and charging them exorbitant rents, must be stopped.

“I am calling on the Chief Executives and Directors of Services for Housing in both Galway and City County Councils to outline what they intend to do to address these matters which they have responsibility for enforcing.”